Lord of Slivers
by Deathdingle
Summary: There are Slivers in the forests of Konoha, they have taken the lives of many foolish ninjas and now they have chosen a new lord. What will this mean for Konoha's 'Demon Child'
1. Chapter 1

Lord of Slivers

Chapter 1 – The Lord Emerges

Key:

OoOoOoOoO – Opening/Ending

XxXxXxXxX – Story jumps

ST – Split time (different areas same time)

"Normal speech"

_'Normal thoughts'_

"_Telepathy"_

**"Demon speech"**

_**'Demon thoughts'**_

**Important A/N:** I'm going to be honest – I don't really know where I plan to take this fic, it was a random idea that occurred to me one day so I began to write. It's taken me quite a while to write this chapter alone so any suggestions that you have that could help or ideas of what to do with or which direction to take this fic in please let me know. Any who provides ideas that help this fic along will get credit for their ideas.

OoOoOoOoO

Naruto stumbled through the forest. It was thicker than in any other area of Konoha and even ANBU didn't patrol it. Not even Konohas enemies would risk trying to enter Konoha through this area, the stories of those that had entered and never returned were not just tales told to children to keep them in line. These stories were true, genin, chunin, jonin and ANBU all heard of it and every so often a stupid ninja who believed themselves stronger than they were or didn't believe the stories, would enter and never return.

Of course 9 year old Naruto's isolation and the ostracising from society that the villagers forced upon him meant that he had never heard the stories, didn't know the danger. He could hear the occasional clicking as he passed but paid it no mind. It was his birthday and while the villagers generally didn't attack him – there where exceptions in the later hours of the night after they had had too much to drink – the looks he received where far worse than those on any other day of the year and he just wanted away from it all.

The clicking that he had barely noticed before became a little more frequent, enough for him to notice it but not enough for him to bother as the forest around him continued to get thicker and thicker. It wasn't long before the clicking became incessant and the forest became so thick that Naruto found himself climbing through. The clicking around him surrounded him, coming from every side, but seemed to part before him to allow him access.

He glanced upwards and realised that he no longer knew what time it could be, the trees above him blocking any hint of sky from view. He began to feel drawn in, as though something was telling him to continue on and move deeper into the forest. He had long since learned to trust his instincts and though this didn't feel like his instincts usually did it was sufficiently close to them for the ever curious young boy to follow its prompts and move deeper into the forest.

XxXxXxXxX

Sarutobi Hiruzen was nicknamed the god of shinobi and the professor for good reason, he had survived 2 wars and the attack of the Kyuubi no Kitsune despite being on the front lines. After surviving 5 decades as a shinobi he had learned that many things were not worth the effort to worry over, they were out of his hands and worrying never did any good. Which was why his current emotional state was a long way from normal.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was worried. Very worried in fact. Uzumaki Naruto had been missing for nearly 6 hours and the last reports of his whereabouts pointed towards the most dangerous section of Konohas vast forest. This left the aging Sandaime frantic with worry and at a complete loss as to what to do. No ninja would willingly go in after the boy, fearing that both he and they would be lost. Even Hiruzen himself felt unsure that he would be able to escape the forest alive, with or without the blond child.

XxXxXxXxX

It was over 8 hours after he had gone missing, the sky long since darkened by the absence of the sun, when Uzumaki Naruto emerged from the forest, unharmed and with 5 strange creatures following him. Each creature bore its own unique characteristics but each also had a few things in common, they each moved on a number of tendril-like limbs, had apparent upper and lower bodies, from the front centre of the upper body on the 4 largest creatures projected a single limb with apparent elbow and wrist joints while the smallest had a limb from each shoulder joint.

4 of the creatures had something resembling a scythe attached to the wrist, though the exact looks for each differed both in length and design, while the last had a set of smaller tendrils, like a miniature version of those that propelled it along the floor with side-to-side motions reminiscent of a snakes'. The heads of the creatures were also very unusual and each unique to the creature, though each tapered off to a point at the front, none had eyes or nostrils and none appeared to have mouths.

Sarutobi Hiruzen appeared in front of the boy mere moments after receiving word of the boy's return, his personal ANBU standing behind him, obviously tense and wary of these strange new creatures.

"Naruto, where have you been and what are these, creatures?" Hiruzen asked carefully.

"They're slivers Oji-san and they're my friends." The boy explained and then giggled when the smallest of the 5 creatures, a completely grey, smooth skinned and rather simple looking creature, at least in comparison to the other 4, nuzzled up under his chin in an obvious display of affection, although what type of affection was unknown, it was quite apparent that they wouldn't harm the boy.

"Perhaps we should discuss this further in my office Naruto." Naruto merely nodded his acceptance and dutifully followed behind the leader, the 4 larger creatures enclosing him while the fifth remained at the boy's side. Suddenly a ninja jumped from further back in the crowd, a kunai drawn and aiming for Naruto. In an instant the 4 larger creatures moved into action, their appearances meshing together as they moved.

In mere moments the man had been killed and consumed by the creatures and another creature, looking like a smaller versions of the creature that remained at Naruto's side, emerged from each of the larger creatures. The 4 new creatures immediately swarmed around Naruto and seemed to wrap around him, the boy sighed with a wistful smile on his lips. Then 2 of the creatures began to change.

Sarutobi watched in fascination as the creatures paled to white and then eyes snapped open on the side of their heads, white pupil-less eyes, the eyes of the Hyuuga clans Byakugan. It was apparent that the man that had attacked had been a Hyuuga and now these creatures seemed able to use that ability. Hiruzen shifted his attention back to Naruto and noticed that his eyes had also turned to those of the Byakugan, veins bulging to show there activation. As Hiruzen watched in shock the dojutsu deactivated and faded from Naruto's eyes.

Deciding it best to wait until they were in the security of his office before asking any questions Hiruzen quickly spun on his heal and began moving towards the tower once more. He could easily tell that Naruto was following by the clicking sound the creatures gave off as they moved and he was certain that the creatures would remain with Naruto to guard him.

XxXxXxXxX

Hiruzen slumped into his chair, his aging body feeling slightly overwhelmed by the stress he was under. He could only imagine how he would feel after the conversation that was about to take place. Beside him stood an ANBU in a dog mask and on the other side of the desk Naruto sat in a chair, the largest of the grey coloured slivers lying across his lap and 1 of the smaller ones curled up on his head while the remaining creatures formed a protective semi-circle behind him, the 2 white and 1 grey smaller slivers closest to the boy while the 4 larger slivers remained on the outside.

"So Naruto, why don't you tell me what happened and then explain more about these, slivers, to me." Hiruzen told the boy gently.

"Ano sa, I'll do my best. I decided to get away from the village, since usually things are worse today than any other day of the year, so I wandered into the forest and eventually came across these creatures. Some of them could talk to me in my head, they told me that I was special and that I was to be their new lord. After that they did something and I ended up my head and met Kyuubi-san. It said that I was an interesting host so it would help me because it wanted to see what would happen.

"Once I woke up I did as it told me, I cut my arm and got one of the grey slivers that hadn't e-e-evo-lved yet to put some of its blood into the cut. Kyuubi-san then int-int-int, made it so my blood was like theirs so I could do the same thing they do." The child explained to the best of his ability.

"And what exactly is that Naruto?" Prompted Hiruzen.

"Ano sa, they..." Naruto paused part way through his sentence and looked over to the sliver that had tendrils at the end of its wrist, Hiruzen noted that the creature was a combination of gold's, yellows and greys and that from the back of its head were more, smaller tendrils.

"_To answer your question, we are of a hive mind and in some way body, whatever ability one amongst our number has, all amongst our number have. We continue to evolve as time passes and we gain new abilities based on how each new brood grows and adapts. Only our Lord retains a fully singular mind, while still being able to adapt and change with the abilities of each of the hive around them._

"_Though we think as one we are capable as acting as individual units and each is fully sentient but orientated to the hive. We will sacrifice one before we sacrifice the hive but we will still protect the one whenever possible. From now forwards our race will co-exist with the descendants of our Lord, we will choose those we bond with and any that try to force themselves upon the hive will be dealt with in the same manner as the fool that attacked our Lord earlier."_

It took Hiruzen several moments to realise that the creature was using telepathy to speak with him directly. Then several more after it had finished to realise that Naruto was about to become the head of a new clan.

"Tell me Naruto, do your new friends have names?" Hiruzen asked when he finally gathered himself together, the information was enough to shake him even with his age and experience.

"Well, not on their own, but each type has their own name, like the one that speaks in your head is called a synapse sliver, the pink one is a mistform sliver, the goldy one is called a b-broo-brood sliver and the glowy one is called a mind, mindlash sliver."

"And what of the grey ones and the white ones?"

"Well the grey ones are just slivers, they don't have a name because they haven't e-e-ev..."

"Evolved?"

"Yeah that, 'cause they haven't done that yet. The white ones are new so they don't have a name yet but I was thinking vision sliver." The slivers seemed to nod their heads in acceptance. "Vision slivers Oji-san." The boy told him happily.

"And how many other kinds are there?"

"Ano, lots?" Naruto replied, Hiruzen sighed, it was obvious that the boy either didn't actually know or couldn't count high enough to be able to know. Making a slight motion with his hand an ANBU appeared beside him, the slivers instantly tensed, ready to protect their lord if needed.

"Gather the full council, this calls for a meeting." He ordered, the ANBU bowed and departed as quickly as they had arrived, the slivers relaxed once they had gone. "So what are the abilities of those with you?" Hiruzen asked the boy.

"Well the synapse slivers can talk without words, mistform silvers can change shape, like that jutsu they told us about in the academy, ano, henge no jutsu I think. Mindlash slivers can attack someone's head, but they die when they do it and when a sliver kills and eats brood slivers let them create a new sliver, sometimes they're like the mummy sliver, sometimes they're just baby slivers and sometimes they become new slivers, if they eat something they haven't before." Naruto said, it was a basic explanation but for a 9 year-old with a stunted education it was very accurate.

"And you can use their abilities too?"

"_Of course I can Oji-san."_ Hiruzen was surprised to see the body take on some of the characteristics of the synapse sliver and then startled when he heard Naruto's voice within his mind. It was at that point in time that they were interrupted by the ANBU returning.

"The council is assembling Hokage-sama."

"Excellent, come along Naruto, we need to tell them about your new friends and your new abilities."

XxXxXxXxX

The council chamber was buzzing with noise when Hiruzen led Naruto in. Upon seeing the boy and the strange creatures that accompanied him they immediately quietened down and observed while Hiruzen took his place and Naruto stood nearby, the creatures guarding him.

"I call this meeting to order." No sooner had Hiruzen finished speaking did the head of the Hyuuga clan stand up.

"Hokage-sama, those creatures killed one of my clan earlier this evening, I demand recompense." Though his voice remained even it was obvious that he was pissed.

"Yes that sounds reasonable..." The Hokage began, surprising those present. "The Hyuuga clan will pay damages of fifty-thousand ryo to Uzumaki Naruto for attempted assault." That caused outrage, which quietened down after a minute or so, at which point Haishi spoke again.

"Hokage-sama how can it be that my clan has to pay when those creatures attack my clansman?" He demanded.

"Because, Haishi, your clansman was the guilty party, the creatures, which are called slivers for your information, merely acted in the same manner as an Inuzuka nin-ken or an Aburame Kikai." Hiruzen told the man sternly.

"What exactly are you saying Hokage-sama?" Danzo probed, apparently seeking an in to be able to use to get Naruto into ROOT.

"It's quite simple really, the slivers have chosen Naruto as their Lord. They are a most curious and unique kind of creature, they are as intelligent as any nin-ken I have come across but share the same hive mentality of the Kikai. Furthermore they have a rather useful ability, each creature has its own ability but each shares another in common, they are able to share the abilities of those around them.

"But that is just the begging of what they can do. Earlier today, when that Hyuuga attacked young Naruto I got a glimpse of their abilities fist hand, they swarmed like kikai, attacked in defense of their Lord and devoured the perpetrator. Each of the four larger creatures then, gave birth, to a new sliver, of those four, two remained as the fifth, grey sliver, the other two became the white slivers that are here now.

"Naruto has named them vision slivers and they are able to use the Byakugan and, if he so chooses, so too can Naruto." Hiruzen explained.

"I demand those creatures be destroyed!" Cried Haishi, rising from his seat and pointing at the creatures.

"By that argument Haishi, your own clansmen cannot be ninja as that would they had too great a risk of being captured alive and their eyes removed. So shall I remove every Hyuuga from the ninja ranks, and remove your clans status as a member of the council with it? Your clan is on the ninja council after all and without an active ninja I see no reason to keep you in your position, that would also cost a number of other councillors to lose their positions if I am not mistaken." The argument Hiruzen posed was too solid, even Haishi knew that to believe no member of his clan could be captured alive would be fool hardy.

"A wise decision. Now the reason I have called you here is because I believe that young Naruto has the begging's of a new kekkai genkai, one with enough power to match the Hyuuga, Aburame, Inuzuka and perhaps even the Yamanaka clans, and that is just what I can guess from those you see before you. According to Naruto there are a good number more, of many different kinds. I have already witness their ability to blend their abilities and absorb new ones.

"Imagine if we had a clan that was capable of defeating an enemy and then taking their kekkai genkai, within a few months or years every member of the clan might be able to travel with a creature holding the kekkai genkai. This clan has the potential to be able to adapt to any given situation with ease."

"Hokage-sama, you can't seriously be proposing that we give that _thing_ a clan can you?" A member of the civilian council spoke out.

"_I assure you, human, that our Lord his no more his prisoner than you are his prisoner."_ Came the words of a strange voice into the mind of every person in the room.

"As you can tell, these slivers are highly intelligent and their abilities are astounding, that was the ability of just one but each is able to use that same gift as long a member of their hive with that gift is around." Hiruzen explained.

"Perhaps, Hokage-sama, it would be best if he were trained to be able to handle his new skills?" Danzo prompted.

"_You wish to corrupt our Lord and make him your pawn so that you might control us, give us a reason we should not kill you now?"_ It was obviously no idle threat as each sliver took up a defensive position around their young Lord, they each shifted their appearance as their abilities merged and each readied themselves for combat.

"As you can see Danzo, you will not be training Naruto, end of story, for even if the council was to allow the slivers will not. We all know that that particular section of forest has claimed the lives of many ninja of various rank over the years, including a few that may have been S-rank. There is no doubt in my mind that the slivers are the cause and I dread to think what might happen if they were to turn on Konoha because of such an avoidable mistake." Hiruzen stated calmly.

"Then what did you have in mind Hokage-sama? It is apparent that the Inuzuka and Aburame clans would be the best choices but at the same time they may not be." Nara Shikaku was often a voice of level head reason and now was no different.

"Tsume, Shibi, Kuromaru, what do you say on this matter?" Hiruzen asked the 2 clan heads and nin-ken. He knew from experience that the oldest of the Inuzuka dogs could come up with surprising insight.

"Logic dictates that my clan may be able to give aid to Uzumaki-san in understanding a hive mind better but I doubt we could be of further use in teaching the boy." The Aburame clan prided itself on its logical mind set and had proven themselves to be as intelligent and capable as any Nara and Aburame Shibi was amongst the best and brightest that the clan had to offer.

"I don't really know, pup's got potential but I ain't sure how much help we could be, what do you think Kuromaru?" Tsume differed to her nin-ken. The dog chose that moment to jump onto the table and lay in front of his battle partner to get a better look at the boy and his new allies.

"We could teach him much, but how well it would work depends on his new allies, they're powerful alone, no doubt but combined they'll need time and help to develop but at the same time they'll need to learn how to work together fully on their own. We'd have to test them and ask some question of the boy before we'd be able to make a decision. Probably best to get some others to train him as well." The nin-ken's gruff tones bounced off the walls a little as it spoke, once done it dropped back to the floor.

"Are there any other suggestions from the council?" Sarutobi asked after the dog was out of sight. Muttering broke out between the various members of the council as they talked over potential ideas for training the boy. Many of the civilian council want to give him teachers they knew wouldn't teach him properly, fearful that if he were properly trained he would become a danger to them and may even turn on them.

Most of the clan heads however had very different ideas of what the boy's training should entail, they understood that the wrong kind of training and the wrong kind of teaching would make the boy far more dangerous than any enemy to his allies and these strange new creatures that followed the boy's commands without question were at least as dangerous as any jonin individually and with their apparent reproductive rate and unknown numbers they easily had the potential to wipe out the village as nothing more than a gesture if they so wished.

"Tell me, honoured council, most of you have children in the academy correct?" Shikaku asked and received nods from the majority of those looking to stunt the boy's training. "So tell me, what do you think would happen if Uzumaki-san wasn't able to fight properly because he hadn't been trained properly and he was paired with one of your children and became an active team. Then imagine that team was sent of a basic, C-rank delivery mission but something went wrong.

"Say for example a team of Iwa ninja, most chunin or jonin, had been hired by another party to intercept the team and capture or destroy the message, it has happened before. They cut off the team's retreat and force them to fight, if the team has been trained properly and each is skilled enough they have a higher chance of escape, the jonin may be lost in doing so but it may give the genin team a chance to escape to safety and return to the village.

"Then imagine if you continued on your train of thought and sought to cripple one member of that team in hopes of their death, yes the chance of them dying when something went wrong would be extremely high but it would also cut the chance of the other team members surviving that same encounter by around ninety-five percent. Then take into consideration that the person you are trying to cripple is Uzumaki-san.

"There is no question in my mind that with a hive mind such as these slivers possess they would think nothing of rescuing only their Lord while leaving the rest to die, however if they didn't need to step in, or Naruto was still in a position to answer them when things went wrong, which proper training would allow, then instead you increase the chances of not only Uzumaki-san and the genin surviving but also the jonin.

"Right now we are still at less than seventy-five percent of our strength prior to the attack of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, at that point in time we were still recovering from the last war and had barely made it to eighty percent of our forces at the start of the war. Right now we are at perhaps sixty-five percent of our pre-war strength, if we are lucky. If Uzumaki-san was properly trained, combined with his new allies he alone would be able to boost our strength to at least ninety-percent of our pre-war state, potentially even beyond one hundred percent of our pre-war strength."

Shikaku slumped back into his chair, his piece said and already working quickly in the minds of the civilian councillors. It was a strange conundrum for them. On 1 hand they could pull their children from the academy and stop them being ninja but adding ninja to the family gave them a higher chance of being able to marry into a ninja clan or become a ninja clan of their own if they could get enough members.

Then came Shikaku's other arguments, the risk involved for their children if they ended up on the same team as the boy was 1 hand, but the other was the strength the boy could add to the village. While none would admit to liking the idea of it being the boy that controlled 25 or more percent of their forces the fact was that they were still greatly weakened and needed to be able to secure their position as the strongest if someone chose to attack them.

It had been witnessed when Iwa lost the last war very badly that smaller villages would attempt to attack them and either defeat or destroy them in an attempt to take either business or position from them. Konoha could not be seen as weak at any point if they wished to maintain their spot. As soon as they had fully processed the information the civilian council once again broke out in mutters of conversation.

"If I may Hokage-sama..." Yamanaka Inoichi began and continued at Hiruzen's motion. "Given that some of the abilities of these slivers deal with the mind, perhaps it would be best if I were to teach him what I could, after all it wouldn't be good if he were to accidently destroy someone's mind because they said something wrong or he was trying to do something to help them. The mind is a delicate thing and it's very dangerous to start doing things without knowing at least something about what your actions could cause."

These comments once again began another round of discussion, they had all the information they needed to understand that the boy was potentially highly dangerous, more so if improperly trained, they would have a full scale war on their hands if they tried to kill and if they banished him that power could easily end up in enemy hands since it would be far too difficult to kill him and would likely cost them a good number of hunter-nin trying to do so, if they could manage it.

The civilian councillors were quickly coming to the conclusion that whether they wanted it to happen or not, Uzumaki Naruto would need to be trained correctly. The realisation of how dangerous the boy had become also brought about the realisation that if the populace continued to treat Naruto in the same manner as they had been then they could very well create a foe as powerful as any of the great nations.

"Hokage-sama, it has come to our attention that Uzumaki-san will need to have a better standing within the village so that any further incidents, such as the attack by one of Hyuuga-sama's clansmen earlier today, do not happen again." A portly civilian councillor said. Hiruzen considered the man's words carefully, he could see 2 possible options to compensate for this but each had its own problems.

"Homaru, Koharu, Danzo, I wish to discuss something with you privately before I make a decision on this matter." Hiruzen said as he stood from his chair and motioned to a door at the side of the room. The 3 elder advisers rose in silence and followed Hiruzen through the door. Once the door had closed and the room was sealed they sat around a small table to begin their discussion.

"What are you thinking Hiruzen?" Danzo asked cautiously, Sarutobi remained silent for several moments before finally speaking.

"The way I see it we have two options, first is to implement that Clan Creation Act and instate Naruto as a future clan head, or we could reveal his heritage to the populace. Either has its risks, being a future clan head may not sway enough of the village to be suitable but revealing him as Minato's son is equally as likely to bring Iwa's wrath upon him. I need to know what you think about this."

OoOoOoOoO

Additional A/N: While Jutsu and such will be written in Japanese any slivers, original or new, will be given English names since they are a western creation and as such have western names.


	2. Chapter 2 – An Unusual Decision

Lord of Slivers

Chapter 2 – An Unusual Decision

Key:

OoOoOoOoO – Opening/Ending

XxXxXxXxX – Story jumps

ST – Split time (different areas same time)

"Normal speech"

_'Normal thoughts'_

"_Telepathy"_

**"Demon speech"**

_**'Demon thoughts'**_

OoOoOoOoO

"You cannot possibly believe it a good idea to release the boy's family name Sarutobi, Iwa would drop on him in a moment and they won't stop with a single failed attempt." Koharu said obviously displeased.

"See reason Koharu, if we do not then there are many within Konoha that will resent the boy becoming a new clan leader and try and attack him for it. It is too dangerous not to or we will lose many more civilians and shinobi and the boy will be well within his rights to have the slivers destroy them. Remember there is a high chance that any abilities they have will be gained by those creatures and then Naruto will be able to use them." Homaru said trying to argue the other side.

"Maybe so, but if Iwa were to succeed we have no idea what will happen to the seal. Yes it is possible that it is ready and the Kyuubi will be taken with the boy but we cannot know for sure, even Jiriaya-kun admitted that the seal containing it was far beyond his level and he had no idea how long it would take to set."

"But don't you see that the slivers are obviously capable of defending him well, they could easily fend off any assault that Iwa may make and at the same time may be able to grant us the abilities of their ninja, this will allow us to create counter measures without risking the lives of our own ninja."

"But we don't know how capable these creatures are, for all we know Iwa may have the means to render them useless or even defeat them, we simply cannot risk that. If our villagers are stupid enough to attack any clan then the others will step on them from fear they may turn on any new clan for no reason at all, despite the reason being different. It is too risky to let Iwa know the truth."

"If I may..." Danzo said, breaking the verbal tennis match that the former teammates had started. "It is apparent that neither measure alone is sufficient to prevent our own from attacking the boy and nor are they sufficient from preventing Iwa, or any other Nation from attacking him. Let us not forget that Kiri has a severe hatred of any and all kekkai genkai, they know they cannot match Uchiha Itachi and it is for solely that reason they leave Sasuke alone.

"Naruto will be the first to bare this kekkai genkai and this makes it much easier to prevent it from continuing by simply killing him before he can produce an heir. However our ninja and civilians would not think twice about protecting him in any way possible if he was revealed as the son of Minato. The few that would not, would not deign to attack a clan, even a newly formed one as that would put them at risk from the other clans due to the pact created during Tobirama-sama's tenure, that each clan will help protect the others regardless of how long they have been established, we made sure they did not know of the events surrounding the Uchiha until after the incident for just that reason.

"Then there is the matter of the creatures themselves, it is apparent that they have made their home in the northern sector of the forest while Minato's house was in the south-western section. The Clan Restoration Act was never extended to include the children of Hokage's as it was deemed inappropriate that a Hokage should automatically gain clan status, given that they should be an impartial body. As such I believe a different approach should be taken.

"First and foremost would be to implement the Clan Creation Act, which was put in place for this situation, I would also advise against allowing marriage proposals and betrothals, the creatures are obviously intelligent and have no mind to see their master controlled by another, they may deem these such attempts and react upon their threat against myself towards the clan or persons that proposed them.

"Then, with the boy's status in place, the land surrounding the creatures home should be given to him as his clan grounds, which will protect our own people since Konoha law forbids entry to clan property without the consent of the clan head or a clan member and breaking this law carries some severe penalties to deter would be intruders, the next phase should be to reveal his parentage, this will then quell any out bursts and move the people to lookout for the boy.

"This should stop or at least reduce most attempts at the boy's life from outside sources and those that do get through should be easily taken care of by the slivers. I believe that we would only need to capture two or three would be assassins from Kiri, Kumo or Iwa and they will back off, too afraid to risk war with us to be willing to try anything else. And remember that Kumo used the ambassador card once but against a large clan, against a single person they would be far worse off.

"A single ninja acting without orders to attack a large clan in the attempt to get a kekkai genkai that will grant them a higher standing is understandable, regardless of how much of a lie it may be, but attacking a single person who is also the clan head and only member of a new clan will be an obvious attack by anyone and as such they will be perceived as the guilty party and it will be obvious that orders were issued, more so if it is Kumo again."

Despite his rather long speech Danzo had got his point across, he almost could see the gears in the minds of his fellow elders click into place and whir up to speed as they processed this new idea. A glance at his leader (much as he hated to admit that the man was such he wouldn't deny that Hiruzen was a skilled leader and far more capable of boosting troop morale than he was) surprised Danzo as Hiruzen seemed to have already processed the idea and appeared more than happy with it.

Danzo himself had to admit that these new creatures had thrown a major problem in his path. They were skilled and strong, intelligent and independent, they shared the best traits of at least 4 of Konoha's major clans and displayed a potential unlike any other species he had ever seen. He could no longer risk targeting Naruto as someone to train, nor was there any chance of turning him against the aging Kage.

He would have to re-think most of his plans but even he would admit that for the time being Naruto was well and truly out of his grasp. That would also throw a few more problems into his plans since many of his previous victories relied on lending aid to or at least backing off of Naruto, without that as leverage Danzo knew that several of his operations, which Hiruzen had conveniently overlooked for his help, would now have to be cut completely lest he end up in more trouble than he risk.

"Much as I hate to admit it, it would seem that Danzo has the only workable solution." Said Koharu.

"I have to agree, perhaps we could put some limitations on his clan..." Said Homaru.

"That would be unwise as the clans would quickly side with Naruto. To them there would be too much risk that we could just as easily turn on them and start taking down their traditions if we started to put restrictions on new clans. In their minds it will start with one and then spread, first to the weaker clans and then to the stronger clans." Said Danzo.

"Very well, it is decided, we shall implement the Clan Creation Act and give Naruto the land the slivers already use as their home, as well as reveal his true heritage to the world. Now all that is left is to inform the council, the other clans and the rest of Konoha of our decision." Said Hiruzen.

XxXxXxXxX

During the entire conversation Naruto and his new companions had remained at the head of the table, calm and collect. The large slivers remained motionless, while Naruto calmly petted the sliver resting on his lap, which in turn rubbed itself up against him. The civilian councillors continued their whispered mutterings amongst themselves. They had been suitably cowed by the words of Shikaku and were no longer looking to cause Naruto any direct harm.

That didn't mean that they were willing to let him be a loose cannon either.

Regardless of whether or not he was the Kyuubi or merely its container he still had more power than they felt any single being should, unless it was them, they could not guarantee his allegiance and he was a wild card. Only 2 people in the room caught the hushed mutters, Inuzuka Tsume and Naruto himself. Tsume just snorted at the idiotic fools, to her anyone with eyes could see that the boy was almost blindly loyal to the village and probably blindly loyal to the Sandaime Hokage.

Naruto just didn't care, he was happier than he had ever been since now he had friends. He idly considered eavesdropping on the conversation happening within the room, he couldn't hear anything but then again, walls didn't really stop thoughts. After a few minutes of thinking and a brief conversation with the slivers around him he decided that if the Hokage wanted him to know he would tell him.

The continuing chatter never really built up to anything more as each of the clan heads remained silent in their own thoughts and every time a civilian councillor came up with a potential way to cripple Naruto's progress another would step in and remind them why it was a bad idea. The chatter instantly stopped when the door at the side of the room opened and the Hokage and elders came out. Nothing was said as each of the elders moved to their respective seats and sat down.

"Due to the sensitive nature of the information we could not allow the general council to vote on this matter. The decision has been made and is final, it is in immediate effect and will be announced to the populace tomorrow morning. First, Uzumaki Naruto will be granted his inheritance, including his full birth name. As of now Namikaze Naruto is entitled to the estate, possessions and monetary inheritance left to him by Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage." Silence filled the room as Hiruzen's words sank in to those around the table.

As understanding began to filter through a mixture of emotions crossed the faces of those present, ranging from shock and surprise, to disbelief, anger, acceptance and happiness, only Nara Shikaku had a different reaction, if you can really call a snore a reaction. He was quickly nudged awake by Inoichi and the platinum blond whispered the information to him, his eyes remained closed but a smirk made its way to his lips.

"Next is the matter pertaining to his new kekkai genkai. You all know that gaining the position of Hokage does not grant clan status and neither Namikaze Minato nor Uzumaki Kushina were from clans, as such Naruto is currently without a clan, thus the Clan Creation Act will be implemented and the new Namikaze clan will be created. The land surrounding the area that the slivers have already made their home will be granted to the new clan, both to allow our newest allies an amount of comfort and to protect our citizens and ninja from wandering into that area and putting themselves in danger any further, you all know the penalties for entering clan grounds without permission. Furthermore, due to the threat issued by the slivers towards Danzo, marriage proposals will not be accepted to avoid any misunderstandings." Sarutobi said firmly.

"The decision has been made that tomorrow morning, all those present in the village and not performing essential duties will be gathered before the tower to listen to the announcement. I am quite sure that the clans will back this decision and enforce the laws around it. Be warned, any attempts to cause problems and upset the peace will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. You may not tell anyone of the purpose of the announcement, nor discuss it amongst yourselves until after it has been made. But it would be best if you warn all you can about what I have said regarding any difficulties, the last thing Konoha needs right now is a civil war after all."

Silence descended after Hiruzen finished, it took several minutes for many of the council to fully understand what they had been told, then when it had sunk in they began trying to form arguments against it, only to remember that the decision was final and had already been authorised by their staunchest supporter, Danzo. Without him even the entire civilian council combined did not have the political power needed to challenge the Hokage alone, the smiles on the faces of the Clan council quickly told them that they would also need to contend with them. In short the Civilian council realised that it had dug its own grave years ago and were now beginning to fall into it.

XxXxXxXxX

It took nearly 2 full hours for the council session to finish as the civilian council decided that what Naruto had been given would be a severe blow to Uchiha Sasuke's ego and began to try and get additional aid for him, pushing for the clans that had agreed to train Naruto to also train the Uchiha. Their plans were firmly shot down when every clan involved reminded them that they won't be teaching Naruto clan secrets, merely aiding him in learning how to work with his new companions and avoid hurting anyone unintentionally with his new gifts.

Now sitting on a chair opposite Hiruzen in the Hokage's office, his legs swinging back and forth beneath him and a sliver curled up on his lap, Naruto seemed perfectly calm and more than content. He would happily admit to anyone that asked that he barely understood what was happening, beyond being told who his parents were, knowing that he was being given a new name, whatever his parents left him and was now in a clan.

Apparently Hiruzen had some things he wanted to talk to him about and explain to him, which was why he was sitting in his office instead of returning home. He guessed that it had something to do with him being part of a clan now. He was perfectly happy to just sit and wait while the old man got the papers on the desk sorted out while he stroked his friend. He gave his full attention to his 'grandfather' when Hiruzen cleared his throat.

"I'm sure you're wondering why you're here Naruto-kun and I know it's getting late so I shall keep this as short as possible. First, I am going to arrange a teacher for you, they will not be teaching you any 'cool new jutsu' Naruto, they will be teaching you about what will be expected of you as the head of a clan." Naruto looked visibly disappointed, he hated all of that stuffy looking-down-your-nose-at-everyone stuff.

"You also need to know that you have until you have had a child to create and submit, give to the Hokage, the laws of your clan. These don't need to be things like all members of your clan have a look on their face that makes them look like they sat on a wasp, but they do need to be things like what you wish to be the minimum, the lowest, requirement, something they have to do, for your clan to consider a member of an adult.

"It could be that you want all of your clan to become ninja so they need to become genin before they become an adult, or you might decide that each of your clan will have a single sliver that will always be with them and they will have to go to the forest that the slivers live in and be chosen by a sliver. Of course you don't need to do that, its just something you might want to. On the note of children though, since you are the first to have this gift, you are entitled, allowed Naruto-kun, to have several wives, there is no maximum, you can have as many as you want, but you will have to have at least three, usually you would have until you were about twenty, but given who you are you may need to find them sooner or the council may push women of their choice on you even if you don't want them.

"You may be able to get around this if you put it into your clan laws but we can talk about that another day, for now I think it would be best if you went home and got some rest. You'll need to spend tonight in your flat and then tomorrow, after the announcement, I'll take you to your parents home and you can stay there until your new clan grounds have been built, which will probably take a month or two."

XxXxXxXxX

Naruto slept well that night, better than he had in longer than he could remember. If it wasn't the cold of the night that made it hard for him to get to sleep it was the fear that at any moment someone could break into his home and attack him. It had only happened a few times but it had been enough to keep him from a sound sleep. With his new friends guarding him and wrapped around him to keep him warm he had no such problems and slept peacefully.

It was a daunting experience, standing in front of such a large crowd while Hiruzen gave his speech, announcing him as the newest clan head, revealing his heritage to the village and introducing the slivers. It was a little scary when a small riot broke out with a number of the villagers being distinctly unhappy with both his heritage and his new status as a clan head. ANBU had moved in quickly to quell the uprising but not as quickly as the other clans had moved.

In a decisive display the established clans of Konoha had placed themselves firmly beside Naruto and shown that they would not tolerate any attacks against him. If any other people held anything against him they held their tongue, unwilling to cross some of the most powerful clans in the elemental nations.

XxXxXxXxX

It was a few days later that Naruto returned to the academy, several of the smaller slivers accompanying him to ensure his safety. During the time between the announcement and his return to the academy, at the beginning of the next week, more than 40 spies had been captured or killed while trying to return to their own villages and report on the new developments. It wouldn't take that long for the grape vine of traders that criss-crossed the lands to transfer the information to every town, village and city in the lands but spies often held more information and after being passed through over a dozen different people the information, while still correct, was often very inaccurate, either being understated or overstated by those passing it along.

It was also a surprise to the young boy that along with the news of who his Father was came the realisation that no Father would ever willingly allow their child to be taken over by a demon and therefore it wasn't possible that Naruto could be the Kyuubi. This realisation caused a shift in the way people treated him. Namikaze Minato had been well liked by the majority of the village and this like transferred over to his son, with many finding that the boy was likeable by himself without his parents name.

It was a strange feeling to have most of his class looking at him in awe and respect and no small number seemed to grasp that whatever had caused the adults to dislike him before had obviously played some part in him being at the bottom of the class. Without having to worry too much about being given false information and being able to get his questions answered Naruto soon settled in and began to work hard on his studies and his training.

His new teacher arrived at his house in the middle of the week he returned the academy and returned every evening afterwards, slowly building up Naruto's understanding of the different suffixes he would need to use and helping him understood what it meant to have a clan image. They began going over the laws of different clans and explaining the purpose behind each law and the reason they had been put in place whenever they could.

XxXxXxXxX

It was on the first Sunday after he returned to the academy that he had his first lesson with one of the clans that would help him control his new abilities. The Inuzuka head, Tsume, had been more than happy to be the first to teach him and she, her companion and Kiba met Naruto outside the academy early that morning. An energetic Kiba and a gently smiling Tsume lead the way to the Inuzuka clan grounds on the northern side of the village.

Unlike the massive and traditionally styled Hyuuga clan compound that Naruto had passed on several occasions, the Inuzuka clan grounds covered a wide area of mostly open land, with a few small clan homes dotted around and a large cluster near the main entrance. Most of his time within the compound was spent playing with Kiba and his younger cousins, most of whom were a year younger than them. The main thing that Naruto realised though was that the only games they played were team games and the games all involved members of the same team working together to win.

It made it much easier for him to understand working as part of a team or 'pack' and how that would relate to working with his own companions. The slivers shared both a hive and pack mind, protect the whole but also protect the part because each part makes up the whole. The games also showed him the value of the individual, penalties for breaking a rule would cause a team member to be out of play for different lengths of time and it showed him how much harder he and his teammates needed to work to make up the slack.

It taught him an important lesson, that while he could sacrifice a single member of his new clan, he shouldn't unless he had no alternative. He also seemed to pick up several admirers amongst the younger Inuzuka girls. He was feral, energetic, fun loving and carefree, he looked out for everyone around him and was very friendly, all traits that most Inuzuka sought in a partner. When it came time for him to leave he was told he could return anytime he liked.

As another week at the academy past Naruto began to show progress. Without the teachers holding him back his learning accelerated at an unbelievable pace. It was quickly apparent that Naruto was something of a genius and now that it was begin nurtured it was starting to shine through.

The second Sunday took Naruto to the Aburame clan home. Like the Hyuuga clan the Aburame had built high but unlike the Hyuuga and the Inuzuka, who also had wide open spaces, the Aburame remained closely packed together with long hot houses taking up large portions of the clan grounds and most families sharing a single, 5 or 6 story home. Parents, children, grandparents and even great grandparents would all live in a single home, much in the same way as a hive would live.

Learning about how to function as part of a hive mind was very different to learning to be part of a pack. The Aburame were logical, not cold, but logic guided nearly every aspect of their lives. It was a much harder concept for Naruto to grasp, that sometimes sacrifices that could be avoided were a better choice as ending the battle quickly meant that the opponent had less chance to kill more. Yes that might not happen, but it was balancing the risk that it could against how many lives would need to be sacrificed to bring the battle to a quick finish.

Understanding that sacrificing a single life to finish a battle that might not take any lives but could potentially take 5 lives if allowed to continue was tough for Naruto, who valued each of his new friends more than he valued his own life. That was another aspect of a hive mind that Naruto struggled to understand, that to his new friends his life was more important than any of theirs because he was the leader of the hive.

Shibi, Shino's Father, explained it very carefully using ants as his example. Showing that against the much larger and more powerful insects that wished to eat them, sacrificing 100 of their number to take down a single enemy that could kill their queen kept them safe because it meant that the queen could produce more workers and soldiers and further increase their numbers. The slivers would take a similar approach, despite Naruto being unable to produce more slivers he held the same position as the ant queen.

Shibi also took heed of Shino's knowledge and used the knowledge of Naruto's dream to further aid in his teaching. He explained carefully and precisely that the Hokage sometimes had to send people out on missions when he knew that at least 1 member of the team would not return alive. He explained that sacrificing that life often gave Konoha the information it would need to prevent many more deaths, sometimes the information couldn't help but the display of power showed other villages that Konoha was not an easy target and made sure they thought twice about attacking. In the same manner Naruto could not produce more slivers the Hokage could not produce more ninja, but they still had to make the decision to sacrifice a few that could save many more.

The next week at the academy showed further improvement in Naruto's overall skills. His lessons from Shibi left him feeling confused but gave him a fresh understanding of what it was like to be a Hokage. This had a knock-on effect of making Naruto pay attention in his history lessons, as he now understood that he needed to have a better grasp of why a Hokage sent those troops to that location and what it did to each side.

His physical skills had also improved, his taijutsu remained at the same level of technique but was more fluid and his reactions were less thought out and more instinctive. His physical strength, speed and agility had raised significantly, but if asked he would say that all he had done differently was play with his new friends. The slivers lithe and flexible bodies, higher speed and naturally higher strength had forced Naruto to train while playing with them just so that he could keep up with them.

With the next Sunday came his training with Inoichi in the workings of the human mind. Naruto's desire to not hurt anyone accidently meant that the elder blond gained the boy's undivided attention and he quickly learned that a fully focused Naruto could soak up information faster than an S-rank jutsu did chakra. Of course seeing Naruto learning about the human mind and seeming to reach an equal level to her in just a day spurred Ino on to begin learning more.

Inoichi quickly devised a way to get his daughter to work harder in the physical aspects of her training and help Naruto without really going beyond the bounds of what he had originally been allowed to teach the boy. In order for Ino to learn a new family jutsu she had to beat Naruto in a taijutsu only spar and learn everything she needed to know about it. Once he told her his requirements she immediately demanded a spar.

The result was exactly as Inoichi expected, Ino's choice to focus more of her attention on her looks than on her training left her woefully outmatched against a boy who had been able to outrun most chunin before finding his new friends. Ino was soundly beaten and Naruto hardly looked like he had warmed up. The spar marked a turning point for the Kunoichi-in-training when she realised that if it had been that easy for Naruto to put her down and she kept her current level of training she could end up in serious danger.

The spar also gave Inoichi the chance to watch how Naruto fought and then give pointers to both children on how best to improve their technique. This way he didn't seem like he was favouring either child and just helping both equally in basic taijutsu, something that any Konoha ninja was allowed to do if an Academy student asked and they were willing. Naruto hadn't asked, but in her own way Ino had and improving 1 meant improving both.

XxXxXxXxX

The effect of Naruto gaining clan status caused an unexpected and prominent shift in the balance of power within Konoha's council. Without their key piece, which was to stop clamouring for Naruto's death for a while (they usually used it to change the topic when something they didn't want changing came up), they no longer held as much sway as they once had. Hiruzen was also able to negotiate an agreement with Danzo, an exchange of sorts. For Hiruzen's aide in pushing through some of the things Danzo wished to change, Danzo would in turn provide the support needed to make some of the changes Hiruzen wished to make.

They also came to several agreements that would otherwise have not been considered as they required some of the changes that had been made to be in place first. The biggest changes came to the Academy. Danzo wished to make the students that left stronger, pushing them harder while in the academy, but would have forced all of the students to reach that level so there would be no pass or fail.

Hiruzen wanted to be able to give students that weren't taking their training seriously a warning and if they failed to train themselves, remove them from the academy. This had been rejected by the civilian council since many had children in the academy and wanted to give them a better chance of becoming ninja, which meant a better position for their family as a whole. Now with each others' backing they were able to put both into place.

With those changes came another, Danzo wanted the ranks of genin, chunin and jonin to play less part in the missions they were allowed to take, sighting that though a ninja may be unable to lead that did not mean they lacked the strength or skills to perform tougher missions. Hiruzen wanted to put the medical programme Tsunade had proposed during the last war into effect and begin teaching academy students about healing.

While Danzo saw no real point in healing ninja in the field, he did understand that Tsunade's figures were correct and that medics increased the success rate of missions by around 20 percent. So Hiruzen agreed that along with gaining the rank of genin each academy graduate would also be given a rank matching those used in the bingo book. Danzo had wanted to pair the teams up with similarly ranked individuals, but Hiruzen shot that down, arguing that if war were to happen a balanced team would stand a better chance of survival and would allow more teams to take more dangerous missions successfully, even Danzo couldn't argue that while quality over quantity gave a higher chance of victory, both almost guaranteed it.

There was 1 other point that both men agreed on, the need for students to leave the academy with more than the 'basic 3'. It took a long time, 3 meetings each at least 7 hours long in fact, but they finally came to an agreement. Danzo had wanted them to leave with an offensive, a defensive and a solid clone jutsu. Hiruzen had wanted them to leave with a fire lighting jutsu, a water gathering jutsu and a low level genjutsu.

They finally agreed that an offensive technique was too risky in case they went rogue early on or were unable to meet the requirements to be promoted to genin. A defensive jutsu would further increase genin survival rates, as would a solid clone jutsu. Danzo couldn't argue that them leaving with a fire lighting technique and a water gathering technique would again be of use but was able to argue that genjutsu weren't used by most shinobi and even genin often struggled with them and that if a student wished to learn genjutsu a provision should be put in place to allow the team sensei to request for a genjutsu instructor if they didn't know enough about the skill to teach it. They did agree that it would be an important part of the academy test that each new genin be able to dispel genjutsu.

They had both taken note of the academy reports that said Naruto struggled to create any working clones and altered the academy passing requirement so that only a type of clone jutsu beyond the basic was needed and that if they could create 1 working solid clone the need for a normal clone would be negated. They were unable to prevent the council from making sure that a student could pass without being able to make a solid clone but were able to set it up so that they could only pass with a basic clone if the student was able to get at least 85 percent in overall score without it.

One of the toughest parts was on the matter of D-ranked missions. Danzo believed they were a waste of resources while Hiruzen believed that they were an important part of developing genins teamwork. Although Danzo did not believe in the Will of Fire he could not dispute the results that good teamwork produced. In the end they compromised, each day students in their last 2 years would be teamed up at random and given a D-rank mission before finishing the academy. Teams that worked well would be noted and when it came time to select teams those pairings would be taken into account.

Once they left the academy they would take the more important D-ranked missions to further build their teamwork and skills while being given more time to develop in team training. This would allow teams that were more likely to pass their post-academy test and that would be stronger faster, which would both increase the ranks and allow the village to take more high level missions.

There were 2 key matters that both Danzo and Hiruzen agreed on. Both revolved around the matter of Academy holidays, the civilian council had set it up so that the Academy had the same holidays as the civilian schools. Ninja rarely got any breaks and technically were always on duty, since even in their down time they could be called upon to perform a mission that needed their combination of skills and experience.

To simulate this they altered they way the academy would run. The civilian schools were in classes for 5 and a half days each week, while the Academy had 6 full days. Every 7th week would become a 7 day week and the 8th would be a 5 day week. The civilian schools had 2 blocks of 2 weeks and 1 block of 5 weeks. The academy would no longer give any more than a single, unplanned, week off at any time and would now be subject to call backs with only a day of notice.

This would simulate the chance that ninja could be called on to do a mission even if they had been given time off. It would also get students into the habit of sorting anything they needed to do as soon as they were given a holiday in the hope that the habit of completing any tasks they had been set by the academy to have done for their return would transfer over to their ninja duties and they would re-equip at least their standard gear after every mission that needed them to use some.

The village would also create several higher D-rank missions to test the students skills in certain areas and with these missions would come the need to use their equipment. When the changes were made Naruto had just had his second session with Tsume, so they opted to start the new 7 week rota the week after he had his next session with Inoichi.

The new changes to the Academy would begin a change that would make a huge difference to Konoha in the coming years and those beyond. Naruto and those of his class had just 3 year before they would leave the academy and by that time they would be very different to the students that had left the academy in the last few years.

OoOoOoOoO


End file.
